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A Melting Pot of Arts and Creations

TEXT: AMABLE MIRANDA PHOTOS: ROLANDO PUJOL, RAUL ABREU AND EXCELENCIAS ARCHIVES

THERE ARE SEVERAL REASONS WHY CUBA DESERVES THE STATUS OF CULTURAL CAPITAL OF THE CARIBBEAN IN 2021

In the aftermath of the world health emergency, events are back with a vengeance all over Cuba, as well as the revival of the squares where art takes a spin as far as deeply popular nuances are concerned.

The Ministry of Tourism's calendar features the already mythical Romerías de Mayo, in the eastern province of Holguin; the Caribbean Festival, in July in Santiago de Cuba, and the third edition of the Varadero Josone: Rumba, Jazz & Son, in August in Varadero.

The country is a destination brimming with culture. Just look at the theater and concert billboards, the exhibitions and art gallery programs, the national and regional festivals.

That cultural foundation, both tradition and constant creation, was recognized by UNESCO when it declared three Cuban cities as creative cities: Havana and Santiago de Cuba, for their musical contributions, and Trinidad, whose handicraft and popular art manifestations make it stand out.

The country's capital has received a variety of titles, including Wonder City since 2014, based on a survey by the 7 Wonders Foundation in which millions of people participated and voted among the candidate cities.

Havana was also fourth in the category of the most desirable cities in the Travel Awards 2021 list by British travel magazine Wanderlust. The year 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the declaration of Havana's Historic Center and

its system of fortifications as a World Cultural Heritage Site.

The Cuban capital has historically been, and continues to be, a space of musical confluences. Jazz, son, salsa and other recent or old rhythms can be heard in theaters, clubs and on the streets, but also guaguancó, that contagious courting dance inherited from Africa and that honors rumba, declared Intangible World Cultural Heritage in 2016.

On the other end of the island, in Santiago de Cuba, where everything is an invitation to music and dance, the son and the conga beats blare out with much greater force.

Many of the nation's most renowned soneros have come from there, and the Fiesta del Fuego is a communion of all the cultural expressions of a magnetic and multiracial Caribbean.

One of the most treasured artistic expressions in Santiago is the Tumba Francesa,

which unites dance, song and percussion bequeathed by Haitian slaves, inscribed since 2003 on the list of Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Spirituality has deep nuances there, since the veneration professed in the National Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre is a deep-rooted part of Cuban culture and national soul.

In the center-south of the island, Trinidad, the third town founded in Cuba and one of the first in the Americas, was once a rich sugar emporium and today is a renowned square of colonial architecture with expressions of the early 18th century (World Heritage since 1988, together with the nearby Valle de los Ingenios), where traditions and ways of life are preserved, from handicrafts to music.

There, culture and creativity are lived on a daily basis. The admirable needlework techniques such as frayed needlework, frivolitè, Tenerife lace, crochet, crochet and bobbin lace have long been associated with its development.

The Plaza Mayor, the heart of its historic center of cobblestone streets, is surrounded by the most colorful colonial buildings of the old town. Its flowery trellises, gardens and tall royal palms are some kind of lures.

The same charms and discoveries can be found in Camagüey, famous for its unique urban layout and labyrinthine alleys, the combination of neoclassical, eclectic, neocolonial and Art Deco styles, its outstanding religious architecture and an active cultural life in which ballet and theater stand out (its historic center has been a World Heritage Site since 2008).

Or in the central-southern Cienfuegos, distinguished by its neoclassical and modern design in the regional urban planning of the 19th

En 2022 se celebran

los 40 años de la declaración del Centro Histórico habanero

y su sistema de fortificaciones como Patrimonio Cultural de

la Humanidad

century; its coexistence with the sea, its parks and its monumental cemeteries (its historic center is a World Heritage Site since 2005).

Also in the center, but close to the north coast, is Remedios. Beautiful for its streets and colonial residences, its main square with two churches and its distinctive sign, the parrandas, colorful and intense festivities, a tradition that emerged in the nineteenth century that it shares with 17 other towns in the region

and that in 2018 entered the

Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Popular or concert music, in a street or a theater; internationally renowned painters and filmmakers, a world-renowned ballet company, great writers .... Culture is vast on this small yet large island. Once the visitor arrives there, he lives intensely in that reality.

Sumario

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https://revistasexcelencias.pressreader.com/article/282437057696176

Exclusivas Latinoamericanas